Glucosamine is commonly used for the treatment of osteoarthritis. It is available as an over the counter preparation and also as a prescription pharmaceutical. There is concern from animal experiments that glucosamine may alter glucose metabolism through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway. The objective of this systematic review is to determine if exogenous glucosamine adversely affects glucose metabolism in humans. This review does not separate out the effects on glucose metabolism of the various glucosamine preparations.METHOD:

An English-language literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE and EBM Reviews (1950-February 2009) was conducted. The bibliographies of selected papers were manually searched for additional references. Two reviewers independently analyzed studies for quality and content using a standardized data extraction form.RESULTS:

Eleven studies were included. Six studies were randomized controlled trials and the remaining five were prospective studies with or without controls. Four of the studies found decreased insulin sensitivity or increased fasting glucose in subjects taking glucosamine. Three of these were clinical studies using oral glucosamine. Studies that included subjects with baseline impaired glucose tolerance or insulin resistance were more likely to detect an effect on glucose metabolism than studies without such subjects.CONCLUSION:

I gave the full-text a brief read-over. There isn't sufficient data on the long-term effects (for those who use it, say, for years), but here are some tidbits:

"The majority of the studies included obese subjects"
"Four out of the 11 studies reported a significant effect on glucose metabolism"
"Of these four ‘positive’ studies, two included subjects with baseline impaired glucose tolerance or insulin resistance (Fig. 2) [11] and [13]. Neither of the two studies on diabetic subjects detected a statistically significant effect on glucose metabolism [12] and [14]. Three of the seven studies that included obese subjects found an effect on glucose metabolism"

"As shown in Fig. 2, studies that included subjects with impaired glucose tolerance or insulin resistance were more likely to detect an effect on glucose metabolism than studies without those subjects."

Cliffs:

-More research is needed on long-term effects
-It appears that glucosamine MAY increase insulin resistance if you are already obese/diabetic. Effects in healthy humans seem less convincing.

I gave the full-text a brief read-over. There isn't sufficient data on the long-term effects (for those who use it, say, for years), but here are some tidbits:

"The majority of the studies included obese subjects"
"Four out of the 11 studies reported a significant effect on glucose metabolism"
"Of these four ‘positive’ studies, two included subjects with baseline impaired glucose tolerance or insulin resistance (Fig. 2) [11] and [13]. Neither of the two studies on diabetic subjects detected a statistically significant effect on glucose metabolism [12] and [14]. Three of the seven studies that included obese subjects found an effect on glucose metabolism"

"As shown in Fig. 2, studies that included subjects with impaired glucose tolerance or insulin resistance were more likely to detect an effect on glucose metabolism than studies without those subjects."

Cliffs:

-More research is needed on long-term effects
-It appears that glucosamine MAY increase insulin resistance if you are already obese/diabetic. Effects in healthy humans seem less convincing.

Good to know. I've never dug into the stuff, just noticed hits on medline.

Might sound dumb, but this is the only joint support stuff I have found that works for me. However my injury is somewhat different than yours I had MRSA in my knee that destroyed everything Including cartlidge and the growth plates.